Offline Downloads
Impact
Offline Downloads is a feature my team designed to give Discovery+ mobile customers the ability to download content to their devices for offline viewing… and they absolutely LOVE it!
3.3 million US downloads in the first month
Addressed the #1 pain point for mobile customers with an “ad-free” subscription
Helped achieve a 4.9 app rating on iOS
Now a core marketing value prop for discovery+
Available on iOS, Android, and FireTablet
58k+ episodes to choose from
Problems
Soon after we first released discovery+, we heard from many mobile customers who were frustrated they couldn’t download content for offline viewing like they could on other popular streaming services, a feature they considered table stakes for a paid subscription. While this feature was on our roadmap, we had other product priorities at launch.
Business Problems to Solve
Increase customer satisfaction: We received hundreds of customer support tickets and negative app store reviews citing the lack of this feature
Retain existing customers: We were fearful customers may cancel over not having this feature
Attract new customers: Use this feature as a core value proposition for discovery+
Customer Problems to Solve
Ad-free customers need to be able to download content on mobile devices for offline viewing
We must provide intuitive controls for customers to manage their downloads
We need to onboard customers when mobile downloads becomes available
Strong & reliable internet is needed for streaming and many customers won’t have this when traveling, commuting, or living in certain locations
40% of users feel it an “extremely to very important” feature – Nielsen Total Audience Report (Feb 2020)
20% of users cited access to “on the go” content as a reason to subscribe to a service – Nielsen Total Audience Report (Feb 2020)
Considerations
“I live out in the country with no internet and very little cell service. I can only download things from apps like this to be able to watch anything.”
– Customer, Jun 12, 2021
Role
Design Thinking & Strategy
I helped organized a workshop to align the team with project guardrails:
Product mission statement
Target proto-persona
Measures of success
Key problems to solve
User stories for design
As the Head of UX for discovery+, I worked closely with this team to plan, research, design, and shape the best possible user experience for this new feature.
Direction & Coaching
I provided design direction, feedback, coaching, and daily support for:
Conducting research studies and distilling learnings into actionable insights
Design concepts, interactions, and prototypes
Aligning w/ global design patterns
Presenting to leadership, partners, and stakeholders
Planning & Alignment
I worked with my cross-functional partners to ensure Design and Research had a proper plan, timeline, and program support needed to conduct our activities collaboratively with other functions, ensuring we included critical time to iterate on customer and stakeholder feedback, all while staying on schedule with a rigorous Engineering roadmap.
Core Team
Jeff
Gigi
UI
Valerie
UX
Research
Adam
Matt
Product
Brooks
Global UI
UX Direction
Approach
I guided the team through an iterative, user-centered approach to designing Offline Downloads and helped facilitate activities so cross-functional team members could participate.
Activities
To understand user habits, needs, and what they value, we completed numerous research studies including competitor analysis, customer expectation interviews, customer feedback audits, and prototype testing.
We conducted cross-functional workshops and design sprints to analyze and distill research learnings into a shared understanding, align on the key problems to solve, and then ideate, test, and shape design solutions as a team.
Timeline
| Assess | Empathize | Define | Ideate | Develop | Deliver |
| Q4 2021 | Q1 / Q2 2022 | Q2 / Q3 2022 | Q2 / Q3 2022 | Q3 2022 | Q3 / Q4 2022 |
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Project Guardrails
Mission Statement
“Offline Downloads is for discovery+ mobile ad-free customers who want to easily download seasons and episodes of their favorite shows to watch later, when a reliable connection is not available.
We will ensure they can take their favorite Shows and Episodes with them as they navigate the world.”
Measure of Success
* specific goals omitted per NDA
hours watched offline
completed videos
offline viewers
first-time downloaders
average downloads/user
errors triggered
customer support
Problems to Solve
1. Ad-free customers need to be able to download content on mobile for offline viewing
2. We must provide intuitive controls for customers to manage their downloads
3. We need to onboard customers when mobile downloads becomes available
Research
Competitor Analysis
A comparison of feature offerings and UX/UI across streaming competitors to assess patterns in the marketplace.
We learned that...
Vast majority of competitors support mobile downloads
Most provide controls over video quality and whether to download over cellular
Most show downloaded content in one place for easier access and group by show
Customer Expectation Study
Unmoderated remote interviews that compared and contrasted customer perceptions of competitor offerings.
We learned that...
Most participants expect this feature in a service they subscribe to
Many feel downloads is must-have
Most use this feature when travelling, commuting or during work
Favorite aspect is ease of accessing downloads and swipe to remove
Customer Feedback Audit
Audit of customer support and app reviews to understand if there were any additional insights.
We confirmed that…
Many have spotty connections both at home or away / when traveling
Many want to avoid using too much bandwidth with internet or cellular plans
Users expect downloads to behave like their other streaming services
Target Customer
“The Screen Hopper”
Jason
35 years old
Married w/ an 8 yr old daughter
Lives in Chicago
“I purchased my subscription to be able to watch shows while on travel and when working in remote locations”
Tech-enthusiast, has many devices
Home design & remodeling content
Discovering and watching content both at home and on the go
Interests
Wants to download discovery+ episodes on his mobile phone so he can watch them when offline or in transit (just like he does with the other streaming services he pays for)
Wants his downloads to be separate from his daughter’s downloads
Needs
Design
We hosted several cross-functional design sprints to ideate, vote, and align on core concepts. Based on our research, we had confidence around how to design the feature itself, but were split on how best to have customers access their downloaded content from a navigation standpoint.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t add Downloads as a 6th item in our nav bar due to space constraints, and customers already used the “My List” feature to save shows and episodes, which is in the nav bar, so we had some open questions.
Would users expect their downloads to be aggregated with their other saved items under My List?
Should we keep both features separate and rework the nav bar?
If we rework the nav bar, what comes out?
Open Questions
Prototype Tests
We tested two prototypes with 10 customers and got unanimous feedback.
Option 1
Downloads as an item in the bottom nav bar w/ Accounts moving to the app header
Pros: Is the clearest way to access Downloads, require less taps and keeps us from complicating the My Lists feature to incorporate downloaded content.
Con: Scope to move Account link to the top of the app header.
Option 2
Downloads as a tab within My List
Pros: Many users already save content to My List and may expect their downloads to show up there too. We could rename My List to My Stuff and house all saved items there.
Con: We’d complicate the simplicity of the My List feature to segment content types and is it worth doing so?
Test Winner
option 1
Option 1 was the clear winner with all participants stating Downloads as its own nav item was the most clear way to access their downloads
Participants actually expected Account in the top right of the app
Participants appreciated that we organized downloads by profile considering 50% share devices with their kids
We learned that…
Stakeholder Reviews
We presented our concepts and prototype learnings to Leadership and Engineering stakeholders and were able to move forward with integrating Downloads in the nav bar, moving Accounts to the top right of the app.
Additionally, we didn’t just want to place an account link in top of the app, we designed it so the active profile avatar is displayed and there’s better clarity on which profile is active, which alleviated another customer pain point!
UI Design
After answering our questions on how best to incorporate Downloads into the app’s navigation, we finalized the rest of the design system, focusing on solving 3 primary customer problems.
Ad-free customers need to be able to download content on mobile devices for offline viewing
PROBLEM 1
USER STORIES
PROBLEM 2
We must provide intuitive controls for customers to manage their downloads
USER STORIES
PROBLEM 3
We need to onboard customers when mobile downloads becomes available
USER STORIES
Information Architecture
As we shaped the designs, we created 15 IA flows to articulate customer and system decisions.
Delivery
We collaborated with our Engineering and QA partners over the course of three months to test builds on iOS, Android, and FireTablet. These efforts helped capture numerous defects and our involvement was instrumental in releasing a polished feature, which has been met with widespread acclaim from our subscribers and press.
First released in Brazil as a test market
Released to all markets in Dec 2022
Available to all “ad-free” subscribers on iOS, Android, and FireTablet
58,000+ episodes can be downloaded
Release Notes
Press
Conclusion
Offline Downloads alleviated the #1 pain point for our mobile “ad-free” customers and they downloaded more than 3 million episodes in the US the first month alone and tens of millions since.
We conducted substantial research to understand customer habits, needs, and expectations. We ideated, tested, and shaped our designs with customers to confirm value and usability before we released it.
Designing products and features that customers love is incredibly fulfilling and I’m super proud of this project.